Me vs HSBC/Capquest/Metropolitan -- PLEASE HELP!!

Rob_J_2

My apologies in advance for the length of this post. It is my first post and I need to give all of the relevant background information. Thanks in advance for any help and advice given. I really am desperate!


Earlier this year, after many months of trying to keep my head above water, I defaulted on my HSBC Credit Card repayments. My financial situation had become dire and I had no way of making these payments. However this was, and still is, my only debt.

I received a letter from Capquest Debt Collection Agency informing me that they had been appointed by HSBC to collect this debt and that all communication regarding the account must be with Capquest.
The letter then went onto make what I now know are the usual threats in large red type of imminent court action unless the full amount is repaid within 7 days.

This was my first experience of debt collection agencies and the letter did initially have it’s desired affect. I immediately broke out in a cold sweat and was utterly terrified by the threats.

I made the mistake of contacting them by phone where I was essentially verbally abused and threatened with what I now learn is the terrible fate of speaking to “Mr. Campbell” and also with imminent court action, and told that I must make a payment there and then to stop the court action going ahead.

Thankfully I managed to get off the phone without agreeing to anything other that sending them a personal budget sheet. After the phone call, via an internet search I found out about the National Debt Helpline. They told me to send Capquest the personal budget sheet requested, gave me advice on how to fill it in and told me to use the one provided on their website as opposed to the one Capquest were sending me. I also spoke to them about full and final settlement offers.

The first letter I sent to Capquest was an offer of a full and final settlement of £4000. The debt is over £8000 and rising fast with interest and possible penalty charges being added. This money was offered to me by a friend, the only other individual who knows about my situation, and was on the sole condition that it is used as a full and final settlement and not to simply pay part of the balance. This was explained in the letter to Capquest.

I also enclosed my personal budget sheet showing that I could afford to pay £40 a month.

The only response I got from Capquest was a letter saying that the settlement amount was unacceptable and I must phone them immediately to prevent any further action being taken. I phoned them and was told that if I paid £4000 off the balance I would then only have to pay £240 a month. When I asked them how they arrived at that figure they just got angry and said I better pay it if I wanted to avoid things getting a lot worse. I said that it was simply impossible to pay either amount and referred them to the letter I had sent them.

I then found this forum via an internet search. The first thing I did was to send Capquest a letter insisting that all correspondence must be in writing. They replied in writing…demanding that I phone them.

I then finally came across information regarding a CCA request. I sent this to Capquest and received a letter back from them informing me that my account was on hold whilst they obtain the relevant documents, and that if I had any documentation that my help them, could I please send it to them!

I then noticed that on my credit card statement, which I was still receiving, that Capquest had set up monthly payments of £240, entirely without my knowledge or consent. I phoned HSBC and explained this, but it was the usual call centre worker who offered no help at all. I then spoke to the National Debtline, as I had been doing before each letter I sent out, and the gentleman there told me to do nothing as I had made the CCA request so until those documents were obtained for me, the account was on hold.

The 12 working days then the following calendar month passed and I honestly felt like a little bit of weight had lifted for the first time in a long time, and actually managed a few good nights sleep! I phoned the National Debtline and they once again said to do nothing. I then spoke to someone else there who said that I could write enquiring as to whether the documents had been obtained, and if they hadn’t then could I please be informed of this in writing with an assurance that they will no longer be pursuing this debt.
I sent this letter to Capquest but heard nothing.

The only thing that happened in the meantime was that when I attempted to use my HSBC debit card to check my balance (there was only a couple of Pounds in the account as I was told by the National Debtline not to use that account as HSBC could just take any money in there to pay the credit card debt, which they had done previously) my debit card was taken by the machine. Staff in the branch explained that it had been withdrawn due to my credit card debt being in the hands of a debt collection agency.

Then things took another unexpected and unwelcome twist.

I received a letter from HSBC informing me that since I had failed to contact them regarding the outstanding payments on the account, that my details had now been passed to credit reference agencies and that collection of the debt had now been passed to a debt collection agency.

No reference to all of my correspondence with Capquest! No reference to the outstanding CCA request! I couldn’t believe they had done this! Were they allowed to do this seeing as the account was in dispute?

I then received a letter from Metropolitan Debt Collection agency just introducing themselves, informing me that they were collecting on behalf of HSBC and demanding the full balance to be paid. Back to square one.
I am aware that Metropolitan are HSBC’s very own “in house” debt collection agency, but I am not sure what difference this makes, if any.
I have written to them requesting that my account be put on hold for a minimum of 28 days as I have to contact HSBC and Capquest regarding this matter.

I just need some help and advice over what to do now! Where do I stand regarding the CCA request now that the debt is in the hands of a different collection agency? Do I sent another CCA request to Metropolitan? Do I send a CCA request to HSBC? Have HSBC broken any of the debt collection guidelines in what they have done? Should I begin making payments of £40 a month or at least offer to do so?

If anyone needs any more information so as to be able to offer advice I’d be more than happy to give it. I’m losing sleep over this situation and feel very out of my depth.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any help and advice given really is hugely appreciated.

Ames

I've had exactly the same, although with different companies. No CCA, so they sell it on to someone else. There's a letter that tells them off for buying a debt that's in dispute, I'll try and find it for you. I sent mine off yesterday.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=11636233#post11636233

That should be the letter.

dorisday

Hi Im sure someone with much more experience will come along and give you the best advice but for the moment dont make any payments to anyone. Forget about the threats ive heard it all and spent a long time being really afraid of dcas but I realise its a job they do and how do they seperate the good debters from the bad (the ones who wont pay when they can) so dont take it personally. Just dont answer the phone to them and if you do just put phone down. Make sure everything is in writing.

Jesthar

Hi Rob,

Welcome to MSE!

Wow, what a story! It looks like you've been making some great progess as it is, until this latest bombshell.

Regarding HSBC and your bank account, if you haven't already done so you need to set up another bank account with a completely different bank ASAP, and transfer all your income and direct debits to that account. Because you have your credit card and bank account with the same people, it can be legal for them to take any money you have in one account to pay off debts on another, so you need to make sure that they can't get their hands on the cash you need to live on! You may struggle to get a bank account given your current situation, but there are a range of 'Basic' bank accounts which you should be fine to open.

It will also be a big help to people here if you could do what is known as a 'Statement of Affairs' (SoA) - a sort of summary of your monthly financial situation. The the calculator we usually use is here:

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Make sure you include absolutely everything, then if you choose 'MSE' in the 'Format results' section near the bottom, you'll be able to copy and paste it straight into a post here for people to take a look at and give you advice.

Not too sure about the debt being passed on, but I think I might be right in saying a debt is not supposed to be passed on whilst it is in dispute? Someone should be able to correct me if I am wrong on this! Unfortunately, I'm not sure what you need to do about that, though, sorry.

*hugs*

~Jes

RAS

Jesthar wrote: »

Not too sure about the debt being passed on, but I think I might be right in saying a debt is not supposed to be passed on whilst it is in dispute? Someone should be able to correct me if I am wrong on this! Unfortunately, I'm not sure what you need to do about that, though, sorry.

jes is right about not selling on a debt known to be in dispute.

worried_jim

Hi Rob J, welcome to the site. I joined on Monday with similar problems and am now well on the way to getting them sorted out. I had a Nationwide credit card which I was unable to pay anything towards for 14 months. This is all scare tactics from hsbc as dorisday posted they are just going thru an automatic process with there contact with you, do not be intimidated, you will not be going to court in the next 7 days no matter what they tell you, nobody is going to come to your door either. Relax talk to National Debtline and dont be bullied into doing something you cant afford. You will need to open another bank accopunt as hsbc will now just take any funds from your account that you pay in to put towards your credit card debt. Good luck and welcome you are amongst friends .

Rob_J_2

Thank you all so much for your help! I will be sending that letter to Metropolitan tomorrow. And I have set myself up a Basic Bank Account with another bank, so hopefully that will be up and running very soon.

Just to clarify in case it wasn't clear, my debt has not been sold to any debt collection company as yet, but is being collected on behalf of HSBC. After Capquest failed to provide me with a copy of my CCA, they either passed the account back to HSBC or HSBC took it from them, I cannot seem to find out which of these it was.

Just a few quick questions, I'm not sure if anyone can help me with these...


Is there anything I can / should do with regards to Capquest setting up the monthly payments of £240 without my knowledge or consent? No money was taken from me, but it looked to HSBC like I had agreed to this and then failed to pay. Am I entitled to request transcripts of telephone calls with Capquest?

Although my account was already in default and had been passed to Capquest, the letter from HSBC informing me that the account had been passed to Metropolitan was the first letter that said that my details had been given to credit reference agencies, apparrently after I had failed to respond to HSBCs correspondence regarding the debt. However at this time, the debt was in dispute with Capquest. I am sure that my default was already on file, but can anything be added to your credit reference file when an account is in dispute?

Should I contact HSBC directly regarding this situation? Is there anything specifically that I should be saying in writing to them?


Once again, many thanks for all help and advice. Just knowing there are helpful and sympathetic people out there has made me feel so much better about things!